To all students and teachers about to start a new term...
I salute you! Learn hard! Learn well!
... But the Head teacher told me off when I tried to give everyone swords...
Or the devil. Depends on the age group, really.
The second one... Is not great Christianity wise. Paraphrasing and idiomizing the bible or even just vaguely Christian principles into one feel-good sentences never yields a particularly insightful result.
The Hypotenuse of a right triangle shall perish, But in his square he shall sum the square of the two adjacent sides, 180 degrees shall be sown by their angles.
Yes please. I'm about done with these pathetic games. Geometry is sooooo boring. COULD WE PEASE MOVE ON?!?!? I did this in 7th grade! I swear, ONE MORE idiot football JOCK says "teacher lady I don't get it" the SH*T *will* hit. The. Fan. One more word a about "hypotenuse" being "difficult math vocabulary" and I am DONE! Do we have an UNDERSTANDING?!
...
Sorry. Venting a bit. School is a bit slow in America.
I hated going at the other kids' pace as well. I even thought about studying maths at the university, but then I ended up in engineering for a more practical subject. There's still a lot of interesting maths here.
I don't understand. I thought in america you needed to make the grade to progress to the next grade. If you were gifted you proceeded to a higher grade? There is talk of doing similar here every now and again.
We just stream by ability in class. It is not a perfect solution @meagloth . Kids can get downhearted when put on what they deem the thick table... Which I hate... I have set fun activities you CAN DO so YOU CAN make progress in your learning. Then the top table say. "I don't want to place all the funny shapes in a Venn diagram. I wanna cut out nets and build pyramids too!"
"To the world you might be just a teacher, but to your students, you are a HERO" - nice words @Anduin. Though - to be honest - just as everyone else, I have met many teachers in my life. Regrettably, lots of them were rubbish. Snotty, arrogant, self-righteous, condescending pricks. Or apathetic, lazy, stupid and hypocritical meat-bags.
There are only a few, that rose above the rabble by being respectable human beings who actually wanted to teach, but those ... I remember. All the strength to you to be one of the second kind.
I don't understand. I thought in america you needed to make the grade to progress to the next grade. If you were gifted you proceeded to a higher grade? There is talk of doing similar here every now and again.
We just stream by ability in class. It is not a perfect solution @meagloth . Kids can get downhearted when put on what they deem the thick table... Which I hate... I have set fun activities you CAN DO so YOU CAN make progress in your learning. Then the top table say. "I don't want to place all the funny shapes in a Venn diagram. I wanna cut out nets and build pyramids too!"
*facepalm*
Most days it works just peachy.
[spoiler=ok NOW I'm venting] Hmmmm... Well, I'm not sure what your saying so I'll explain from the beginning. I think the vocabulary differnce is causeing some confusion. What is a table? After that, I should explain I had it coming. I'm sorry anduin, but I hate school, I always have. Now that I'm older I can sympathize with the teachers we both seem like human being to eachother(rather then in 3rd grade[err... Primary school] where you think the teacher sleeps at school and and such, and the student are 7 year olds, so they can't really understand) and so I see that you guys have really hard jobs, and I've seen the pay algorithm. It's pretty sad, really. I've known some really good teachers. I've also had some really bad teachers, and as a 15 year old who thinks he's the smartest, cleverest, hardest working person in the world,(unfortunatelythis is probably true, deep down) I really believe I could get more done without school stealing away my life.
Anyway, the system. Here in the u.s, you start kindergarten at age 5, and then move up through grades 1-5, which we call elemtary school(Obama wants to get preschool for everyone, but hell will freeze over before the house lets that happen). In those grades you have one teacher that you stay in the classroom with, and they teach you everything. Then you move on to middle school. Here you move from class a to class, and have a locker. This is usually grades 6-8, and then you move on to high school. Now, from this point on, you can fail classes and have to repeat. In middle school you pretty much all move up, and you don't actually get letter grades in elementary. When you start high school, they tell you that you have a blank slate, none of that matters.
This is where I cursed myself for ever doing homework in 8th grade.
In high scool, you start to get credits, and GPA, and real grades. The High school years are what the colleges look at, along with all the big tests you take. There are also supposed to be honors classes, where you essential get a boost because they're "so much harder." Basically a B in honors = an A in a normal class.
I'll start with math. I have the biggest beef with math. At the end of 7th grade, you take critical thinking test. For those who don't know it's pretty much the most watered-down crappy IQ test you can get your hands on. Find the pattern in the arbitrary shapes, match the rotation, ect. You also take a small math test. If you do well(in my case top 25%) you get into algebra, which is technically a high school class, in 8th grade. If you don't, you get the watered down version "8th grade math". So based on a little test at the end of 7th grade, you can be one year ahead in math and take calculus is high school instead of college.
And regardless, math is always the same from year to year. For the first three months we review the incredibly easy stuff. This year, for example, we spent to weeks on the metric system, how to use a ruler, and line vs. plane. Then you do the stuff you did last year, because you forgot it over summer. Then at the end of the year you get 1-2 new units that you've never done before. My experience anyway.
So now me. Halfway through kindergarten I dropped out to be homeschooled because I hated my teacher and... Stuff. It was a long time ago. After being homeschooled we decided that I needed to see what school was really like because I couldn't be homeschooled forever, and we put me back into the second semester of second grade, which I enjoyed immesly. And so then 3rd grade came. And I went back to school. And I hated it. The teacher was a mean old lady and we had to do multiplication tables and I hated it. So for 4th and 5th grade I was homeschooled again. The in the summer leading up to 6th grade I heard about this art school in the city. They where just starting up, and they had this amazing building planned, and it was right in the middle of the shiney district with the fox theater, jazz clubs, opera house, and Powel Hall, where the symphony plays was directly across the street. They said the new building was going to be ready by christamas, and they had gotten space in an old church right next to it. And it was a charter school, so it was free if we made it in. I play cello, and even though they didn't have an orchestra yet, I was all for it. Now, sown town st.louis is not always the nicest place, especially concerning schools. I'm sure recent events have made you aware, at least in the u.s. And Thai was a free school away from the decrepit and failing city district. So we got some of those kids. But it was an arts school. So we also got the preppy white kids from the county. While I guess I'm technically one of the white kids, I clashed with both. I'm a sciencey kid, and nighter of these types know anything about science or math, including the math teacher. She told us that planets had gravity because they had cores, and the core of the planet pulled in other things on top of it and the farther away from the core of a planet you where, the less gravity there was, which was why there was less gravity on Mount Everest than sea level. Mostly we talked about Glee, the t.v. Show, and occasionally Disney network. Back then I struggled to find a word for the boys who would spontaneously break out in nroadway tunes in the middle of English class, but now I think I think the mildly politically incorrect term would be "gay". This along with the city kids. It was... Interesting.
I should not completely condemn the school. They had convinced lots of wonderful people and even better artists to come an teacher there, but the academics where sorrowfully lacking. They had a good mission, and I think it's probably ok for lots of people now that the new building is open(only a year later than promised) and they've been going for more than a year now.
So I was homeschooled for 7th grade. And so I didn't take the test at the end of 7th grade like I was supposed to.
But I went to 8th grade like every other kid, and after we asked a few times I was able to take the test in a closet during orientation, so it was loud, distracting, and I hadn't done any math for 3 months.(summer) So I'm didn't make it into algebra.
I suppose at this point I should say that I do well on tests. I'm bad at school, but I'm great at test. When we took the State standardized test in 8th grade, I awas above the 90th percentile in every subject. According to that ridiculous scholastic reding inventory I'm at a "post-college" reading level or some crap this time last year. I was "advanced" in all the state-required end of course exams we took last year, eapacially science and English. But I am not gifted. I am 3 IQ points short of gifted, apparently. And I am bad at school. I do not appreciate woorkaheets, I don't do busy work and I WILL. NOT. take notes just cause the teacher told be to. (I will take notes if I actually don't know the sunject matter. I will take notes in German.) So I don't usually get good grades(or marks, rather:P) I usually do well on tests. I do well on finals. But when the little things add up, like they do in some classes, I get poor marks. And when you get poor marks, you get put in... I'll call it less advanced classes. And that's the less advanced classes of the less-admvenced u.s. Public school system. So in English the teacher reads all the stories out loud to the class, in world civilization we take quizzes as a class with three tries per aw swear, in geometry we review the metric system, and in chemistry(I'm actually in the "A" class here, but so is everyone else so it doesn't matter) we watch videos from the 70's. *sigh* At least I get to pick my electives. School would be o.k. Of it wasn't for the homework and idiots. Maybe they should just kick me out and give me my share of the 15 grad a year tye supposedly spend on students:P [/spoiler] TL;DR: I hate school because it's slow and useless, but it's mostly my fault. And ms. Vanderwalker a fault. It's a lot of her fault to. But it's partially my fault. A little. I also had an unusual childhood.
@meagloth As I read your vented spleen on the american education system, it may not help what-so-ever to know that you fit all the boxes for a frustrated boy. I suggest reading "Moby Dick"
Not so much high school, though. Good times, but they're over now. What I really miss is college. Wish I could go back with the rest of you, but alas... Money is scarce.
Your will to inspire is an inspiration in and of itself, @Anduin. May the gods bless you and your endeavors.
@meagloth every school district has differences. Here in CT (top state for academics, but still with huge problems) Middle School DOES matter and you don't exactly get a blank slate when starting highschool. As you mentioned, you need to have a history of performing well to be placed in geometry instead of algebra. In my school district it was the same. Freshman year, students who did well in Middle School were allowed to skip algebra and go straight into geometry or honors geometry, and then follow up with Algebra 2 (or honors) then precalc(honors) Junior year then finally Calculus (or Advanced Placement) and the optional AP Statistics. Other students had to start with Algebra 1 (basics) or even "Applied Mathematics".
Same goes for science, where if you performed well in middleschool you can start with biology (honors) freshman year, then take chemistry (honors) sophomore year. Junior year you would take physics (honors) and then might select Advanced Placement (AP) chemistry in addition to physics. Senior year you can take ether of the AP classes (the other being Physics) or just one. This is opposed to starting with "Life Sciences" and then bio, chem and (maybe) physics.
So basically your performance in middleschool is certainly not useless, and can have an effect the rest of your education. In my middle school there were four "cogs", which I assume are like @Anduin 's "tables, in which students are placed based on performance. The students in the top cog usually take honors classes their freshman year of high school, and are placed in the more advanced options (Geometry and Biology vs Algebra 1 and Life Science)
On top of that, your middle school performance determines whether or not you are eligible for any of the Honors courses in History and English. The other thing that determines your placement in high school are "placement exams" that you also take during your middle school years.
So middle school=/= totally useless.
Overall, you remind me a bit of myself. I would hardly ever do my math homework, but I would usually copy the answers from one of my friends (sorry to all the teachers out there!). I would study the night before the exam and memorize the equations and get by. I had ZERO patience for such busy work, and felt that it did not help me. Having ADHD I found it much more time efficient and helpful to cram with reading as opposed to methodically testing my knowledge on the basics for hours and hours.
But, after taking college courses and especially classes in medical school, I now understand WHY those wretched teachers forced me to suffer through answering 50+ questions that ALL use the same principles. With more difficult material, I now find answering many questions solidifies my grasp on key concepts. What I used to think was tedious busywork meant to waste my time and make me miserable is now helpful in more difficult subjects. So all those annoying worksheets might be useless for you, but what you find easy now, others might not. When you encounter more difficult subjects you will see why the teachers made students do that. I mean, it sucks that you have to do work that is meant to help other students who have different learning needs than you do, but it is what it is.
I think you will enjoy university much more. You are given more freedom in electing your studies, which you seem to value (just like I do). Where I went to school (University of Rochester in upstate New York) we were actually given almost complete freedom: there are no requirements. You have to take 3 courses in humanities, 3 in sciences and 3 in social sciences over three years. So, since you will be majoring in one of the three areas, that means you are only required to take 6 courses outside your key area of study... and you get to CHOOSE what those are!
If you find a similar program for college, and get into it, I think you will find more motivation to learn and enjoy your studies much more.
Yeah, probably. In university I'll not only get to pick classes, but be learning real and useful things, instead of boring stuff any fool could look up on Wikipedia. @booinyoureyes while I'm reluctant to mention it because it really annoys me when people who don't actually have real issues say, "omg, I am SO ADD to!" ADD/ADHD is not an adjective. It does not mean you have an editable personality, it's not even a thing anymore. It has the been since the 90's it ADHD now. Which bugs me a lot to, because if you don't even have that slightest bit of information you're really pretty pathetic. But to the point, I probably have something akin to that. I'm reluctant to say it because I'm not formally diagnosed, it's overused, and overdiagnosed. But to be fair... Well I'll just say ADHD and dyslexia run in the family, ok?
But anyway middle school here is a joke. Not only does it not really count for anything, but it's so easy high school comes as a total shock. All the freshmen but for a few(ironically usually the... Lower archiving one, cause they're used to not getting stuff immediately.) react to high school with "holy crap! I have to turn homework in?!!?"
@andiun how does school work in Britain? Do you see any huge differences? Also, do you have a summer break?
I... feel sometimes dyslexia, people with poor writing or reading skills, get cured pretty quick when paper is changed to blue or yellow. What people perceive as Dyslexia, in many cases is visual stress.
White as a background reading material is banned in my class. And those that need it are given coloured paper books. My so called interactive whiteboard is also set to a shade of blue. It helps enormously for dyslexics and non-dyslexics alike.
ADD? ADHD? Behaviour management, boundries and fun, interactive lessons. If doctors did not diagnose it, I almost wouldn't believe it exists. It seems to be a label slapped onto delinquent children who then use it as an excuse for there bad behaviour. More support teaching social skills and empathy works well in my experience. But then my experience of it may be limited.
ADD? ADHD? Behaviour management, boundries and fun, interactive lessons. If doctors did not diagnose it, I almost wouldn't believe it exists. It seems to be a label slapped onto delinquent children who then use it as an excuse for there bad behaviour. More support teaching social skills and empathy works well in my experience. But then my experience of it may be limited.
I was rarely bad behaved, but was a class clown for awhile. In my case I have been diagnosed by a professional, and have used several different methods to deal with it. I do think the effects of it have often been overstated, and I got along just fine for many years before being diagnosed.
Sometimes certain classes become harder than others. Courses that are required that I have no interest in were always a struggle, particularly when there was a "participation grade" that counted for 20% or so of your final marks. In history, English or science I would participate more than anyone in discussions. Then there are math courses. NO exaggeration here: I took four years of math in high school, which involved 1 hour a day 5 days a week. I paid attention maybe a cumulative 7 hours total over that time period. It is also the class with the most "busywork" (ie answering 35 repetitive questions that test only one or two principles, just in different ways) which is what I feel @meagloth seems to struggle with. I'll be honest (and I feel guilty saying this on a thread with a bunch of teachers!) I would just copy my friends' homework assignments right before class.
On the one hand I always hated participation grades. Mostly because I'm not the type of person that does well in them. That is until I took a course at university on urban geography (it was a 2nd year course) that had a separate lecture and reading discussion class times (so say 2 hours a week of lecture and 1 on a discussion on what we were to have read that week) but that didn't give any grade for participation.
Needless to say out of the 3 people who regularly attended it (this was out of probably 20 people assigned to that particular reading discussion time slot) I was the only person who actually bothered to read the material. After that I sort of grudgingly admitted that they exist for a reason. At least in certain subjects.
@meagloth I feel the same, school is slow for me too, and the system used it's completely broken, but who in the Nine Hells would hear some 15 years old guys complaining about this? No one, that's why it's still that way. It has to do with each person, maybe some kids need more explanations, or they are just too consumerist and previously brainwashed to understand a thing.
And about maths… Most of my bad marks in maths are because of getting over discussions with the teacher(s) and later on writing the answers from right to left and bottom to top… But still, I can count in Hexadecimals while people from my class can't divide a polynomial
Also, about ADD/ADHD… One thing is hyperactivity, and another thing are kids whom weren't taught by their parents and are just evil pricks (99% of the 'cases' fall here) overdosed with sugar and anxiety for going back home to play Minecraft. I can say this since I know how it feels to get bored in class, and then the jokes, the paper-throwing and all the stuff that would make a teacher upset begins, with the kids getting bored or either anxious (as an example, I'm always paying attention during [insert all the subjects except economy-related ones here], but nor during economy nor economical theory, because both are pretty boring).
I... feel sometimes dyslexia, people with poor writing or reading skills, get cured pretty quick when paper is changed to blue or yellow. What people perceive as Dyslexia, in many cases is visual stress.
White as a background reading material is banned in my class. And those that need it are given coloured paper books. My so called interactive whiteboard is also set to a shade of blue. It helps enormously for dyslexics and non-dyslexics alike.
Yeah, I'm not dyslexic but even sometimes I read things wrong with black-over-white. I prefer white-over-black much more, because I have ultra-perception of light (and that bothers a lot with white backgrounds).
@meagloth: to learn how to make a mathematical operation correctly you have to do it and do it and do it an do it all over and over and over and over and over again until you can do it by memory. Unless, you can process the operation inside your head naturally (for example, I can solve equations by just looking at them but then I get lost when I write them down :'D) or just by simply using a more handy technique (e.g. instead of 86*5 you could do (8*5)*10+6*5=430).
Well I have a lot of thing to say about this studying system the first thing is that it not working and not fitting no more. All this knowledge they teach in school who remember it years after you are done with it? or even after you finished the exam ???? mostly no one because it just not interesting to remember also if you wanna talk about something you can just google it, so all this system to remember stuff is just old and not working no more.
As for ADD/ADHD they are new disturbances because the system isn't right for this kids, but if you put them in the right system for them they won't have any ADD /ADHD problems at all.
Watch this clip what he said is very true about the education system :
Teachers (good ones) always look to empower their pupils. This means giving more control over the method and the skill sets taught to the pupils in consensus with their teachers.
You are the first generation that has knowledge, hard facts, available to you in mere seconds via a computer.
At present most national curriculums around the world are dropping learn by rote knowledge based topics, for skill sets and methodologies.
How to use a library was a big thing back in 1986. Now we teach, how to use a search engine and information trust, along with copyright. We still go to the library. But we now head straight to the fiction.
You are 15. The world wide web was only just coming alive when I started using it at uni in 1994... No one predicted its effect on communication, let alone the formation of communities like this one.
Teaching what kids tomorrow need is always difficult. Also governments and policy makers are resistant to change and upheaval.
You will have been taught redundant skills. My generation have been taught redundant skills. (Do you know I can file in three different systems?) I have a feeling the next generation will be moaning about why we bothered to teach them handwriting...
Go easy on your teachers. Hell talk to them. You may be surprised they feel the same as you!
Comments
The second one... Is not great Christianity wise. Paraphrasing and idiomizing the bible or even just vaguely Christian principles into one feel-good sentences never yields a particularly insightful result.
Sorry. I'm being Unpositive again, aren't I?
I can arrange some more if you like?
The second one made me sigh.
At least a teacher is actually there to hug on results day...
This is a Den of STINKIN ALGEBRA! Cover your nose Boo!
@meagloth It is friday... You will now complete the homework I have set my kids or suffer... Suffer wrath never seen... Now complete your tables!
http://www.mathplayground.com/balloon_invaders.html
And @Quartz
Do these until you reach the outer edges of the galaxies...
http://www.mathplayground.com/spaceracer_multiplication.html
But in his square he shall sum the square of the two adjacent sides,
180 degrees shall be sown by their angles.
So sayeth the wise Euclid.
...
Sorry. Venting a bit. School is a bit slow in America.
We just stream by ability in class. It is not a perfect solution @meagloth . Kids can get downhearted when put on what they deem the thick table... Which I hate... I have set fun activities you CAN DO so YOU CAN make progress in your learning. Then the top table say. "I don't want to place all the funny shapes in a Venn diagram. I wanna cut out nets and build pyramids too!"
*facepalm*
Most days it works just peachy.
Though - to be honest - just as everyone else, I have met many teachers in my life. Regrettably, lots of them were rubbish. Snotty, arrogant, self-righteous, condescending pricks. Or apathetic, lazy, stupid and hypocritical meat-bags.
There are only a few, that rose above the rabble by being respectable human beings who actually wanted to teach, but those ... I remember.
All the strength to you to be one of the second kind.
Hmmmm... Well, I'm not sure what your saying so I'll explain from the beginning. I think the vocabulary differnce is causeing some confusion. What is a table?
After that, I should explain I had it coming. I'm sorry anduin, but I hate school, I always have. Now that I'm older I can sympathize with the teachers we both seem like human being to eachother(rather then in 3rd grade[err... Primary school] where you think the teacher sleeps at school and and such, and the student are 7 year olds, so they can't really understand) and so I see that you guys have really hard jobs, and I've seen the pay algorithm. It's pretty sad, really. I've known some really good teachers. I've also had some really bad teachers, and as a 15 year old who thinks he's the smartest, cleverest, hardest working person in the world,(unfortunatelythis is probably true, deep down) I really believe I could get more done without school stealing away my life.
Anyway, the system. Here in the u.s, you start kindergarten at age 5, and then move up through grades 1-5, which we call elemtary school(Obama wants to get preschool for everyone, but hell will freeze over before the house lets that happen).
In those grades you have one teacher that you stay in the classroom with, and they teach you everything. Then you move on to middle school. Here you move from class a to class, and have a locker. This is usually grades 6-8, and then you move on to high school. Now, from this point on, you can fail classes and have to repeat. In middle school you pretty much all move up, and you don't actually get letter grades in elementary.
When you start high school, they tell you that you have a blank slate, none of that matters.
This is where I cursed myself for ever doing homework in 8th grade.
In high scool, you start to get credits, and GPA, and real grades. The High school years are what the colleges look at, along with all the big tests you take. There are also supposed to be honors classes, where you essential get a boost because they're "so much harder." Basically a B in honors = an A in a normal class.
I'll start with math. I have the biggest beef with math. At the end of 7th grade, you take critical thinking test. For those who don't know it's pretty much the most watered-down crappy IQ test you can get your hands on. Find the pattern in the arbitrary shapes, match the rotation, ect. You also take a small math test.
If you do well(in my case top 25%) you get into algebra, which is technically a high school class, in 8th grade. If you don't, you get the watered down version "8th grade math".
So based on a little test at the end of 7th grade, you can be one year ahead in math and take calculus is high school instead of college.
And regardless, math is always the same from year to year. For the first three months we review the incredibly easy stuff. This year, for example, we spent to weeks on the metric system, how to use a ruler, and line vs. plane.
Then you do the stuff you did last year, because you forgot it over summer.
Then at the end of the year you get 1-2 new units that you've never done before.
My experience anyway.
So now me. Halfway through kindergarten I dropped out to be homeschooled because I hated my teacher and... Stuff. It was a long time ago. After being homeschooled we decided that I needed to see what school was really like because I couldn't be homeschooled forever, and we put me back into the second semester of second grade, which I enjoyed immesly. And so then 3rd grade came. And I went back to school. And I hated it. The teacher was a mean old lady and we had to do multiplication tables and I hated it.
So for 4th and 5th grade I was homeschooled again. The in the summer leading up to 6th grade I heard about this art school in the city. They where just starting up, and they had this amazing building planned, and it was right in the middle of the shiney district with the fox theater, jazz clubs, opera house, and Powel Hall, where the symphony plays was directly across the street. They said the new building was going to be ready by christamas, and they had gotten space in an old church right next to it.
And it was a charter school, so it was free if we made it in. I play cello, and even though they didn't have an orchestra yet, I was all for it.
Now, sown town st.louis is not always the nicest place, especially concerning schools. I'm sure recent events have made you aware, at least in the u.s. And Thai was a free school away from the decrepit and failing city district. So we got some of those kids. But it was an arts school. So we also got the preppy white kids from the county. While I guess I'm technically one of the white kids, I clashed with both.
I'm a sciencey kid, and nighter of these types know anything about science or math, including the math teacher. She told us that planets had gravity because they had cores, and the core of the planet pulled in other things on top of it and the farther away from the core of a planet you where, the less gravity there was, which was why there was less gravity on Mount Everest than sea level.
Mostly we talked about Glee, the t.v. Show, and occasionally Disney network. Back then I struggled to find a word for the boys who would spontaneously break out in nroadway tunes in the middle of English class, but now I think I think the mildly politically incorrect term would be "gay". This along with the city kids. It was... Interesting.
I should not completely condemn the school. They had convinced lots of wonderful people and even better artists to come an teacher there, but the academics where sorrowfully lacking. They had a good mission, and I think it's probably ok for lots of people now that the new building is open(only a year later than promised) and they've been going for more than a year now.
So I was homeschooled for 7th grade.
And so I didn't take the test at the end of 7th grade like I was supposed to.
But I went to 8th grade like every other kid, and after we asked a few times I was able to take the test in a closet during orientation, so it was loud, distracting, and I hadn't done any math for 3 months.(summer)
So I'm didn't make it into algebra.
I suppose at this point I should say that I do well on tests. I'm bad at school, but I'm great at test. When we took the State standardized test in 8th grade, I awas above the 90th percentile in every subject. According to that ridiculous scholastic reding inventory I'm at a "post-college" reading level or some crap this time last year. I was "advanced" in all the state-required end of course exams we took last year, eapacially science and English.
But I am not gifted. I am 3 IQ points short of gifted, apparently.
And I am bad at school. I do not appreciate woorkaheets, I don't do busy work and I WILL. NOT. take notes just cause the teacher told be to. (I will take notes if I actually don't know the sunject matter. I will take notes in German.)
So I don't usually get good grades(or marks, rather:P)
I usually do well on tests. I do well on finals. But when the little things add up, like they do in some classes, I get poor marks. And when you get poor marks, you get put in... I'll call it less advanced classes. And that's the less advanced classes of the less-admvenced u.s. Public school system. So in English the teacher reads all the stories out loud to the class, in world civilization we take quizzes as a class with three tries per aw swear, in geometry we review the metric system, and in chemistry(I'm actually in the "A" class here, but so is everyone else so it doesn't matter) we watch videos from the 70's.
*sigh*
At least I get to pick my electives. School would be o.k. Of it wasn't for the homework and idiots. Maybe they should just kick me out and give me my share of the 15 grad a year tye supposedly spend on students:P
[/spoiler]
TL;DR: I hate school because it's slow and useless, but it's mostly my fault.
And ms. Vanderwalker a fault. It's a lot of her fault to.
But it's partially my fault. A little.
I also had an unusual childhood.
...
I'll live with few regrets if I can be that inspiration to at least one.
Because then I will have made a difference.
I honestly want you to read it.
And here I am actually missing it. TT_TT
Not so much high school, though. Good times, but they're over now. What I really miss is college. Wish I could go back with the rest of you, but alas... Money is scarce.
Your will to inspire is an inspiration in and of itself, @Anduin. May the gods bless you and your endeavors.
Same goes for science, where if you performed well in middleschool you can start with biology (honors) freshman year, then take chemistry (honors) sophomore year. Junior year you would take physics (honors) and then might select Advanced Placement (AP) chemistry in addition to physics. Senior year you can take ether of the AP classes (the other being Physics) or just one. This is opposed to starting with "Life Sciences" and then bio, chem and (maybe) physics.
So basically your performance in middleschool is certainly not useless, and can have an effect the rest of your education. In my middle school there were four "cogs", which I assume are like @Anduin 's "tables, in which students are placed based on performance. The students in the top cog usually take honors classes their freshman year of high school, and are placed in the more advanced options (Geometry and Biology vs Algebra 1 and Life Science)
On top of that, your middle school performance determines whether or not you are eligible for any of the Honors courses in History and English. The other thing that determines your placement in high school are "placement exams" that you also take during your middle school years.
So middle school=/= totally useless.
Overall, you remind me a bit of myself. I would hardly ever do my math homework, but I would usually copy the answers from one of my friends (sorry to all the teachers out there!). I would study the night before the exam and memorize the equations and get by. I had ZERO patience for such busy work, and felt that it did not help me. Having ADHD I found it much more time efficient and helpful to cram with reading as opposed to methodically testing my knowledge on the basics for hours and hours.
But, after taking college courses and especially classes in medical school, I now understand WHY those wretched teachers forced me to suffer through answering 50+ questions that ALL use the same principles. With more difficult material, I now find answering many questions solidifies my grasp on key concepts. What I used to think was tedious busywork meant to waste my time and make me miserable is now helpful in more difficult subjects. So all those annoying worksheets might be useless for you, but what you find easy now, others might not. When you encounter more difficult subjects you will see why the teachers made students do that. I mean, it sucks that you have to do work that is meant to help other students who have different learning needs than you do, but it is what it is.
I think you will enjoy university much more. You are given more freedom in electing your studies, which you seem to value (just like I do). Where I went to school (University of Rochester in upstate New York) we were actually given almost complete freedom: there are no requirements. You have to take 3 courses in humanities, 3 in sciences and 3 in social sciences over three years. So, since you will be majoring in one of the three areas, that means you are only required to take 6 courses outside your key area of study... and you get to CHOOSE what those are!
If you find a similar program for college, and get into it, I think you will find more motivation to learn and enjoy your studies much more.
ADD/ADHD is not an adjective. It does not mean you have an editable personality, it's not even a thing anymore. It has the been since the 90's it ADHD now. Which bugs me a lot to, because if you don't even have that slightest bit of information you're really pretty pathetic.
But to the point, I probably have something akin to that. I'm reluctant to say it because I'm not formally diagnosed, it's overused, and overdiagnosed. But to be fair... Well I'll just say ADHD and dyslexia run in the family, ok?
But anyway middle school here is a joke. Not only does it not really count for anything, but it's so easy high school comes as a total shock. All the freshmen but for a few(ironically usually the... Lower archiving one, cause they're used to not getting stuff immediately.) react to high school with "holy crap! I have to turn homework in?!!?"
@andiun how does school work in Britain? Do you see any huge differences? Also, do you have a summer break?
White as a background reading material is banned in my class. And those that need it are given coloured paper books. My so called interactive whiteboard is also set to a shade of blue. It helps enormously for dyslexics and non-dyslexics alike.
ADD? ADHD? Behaviour management, boundries and fun, interactive lessons. If doctors did not diagnose it, I almost wouldn't believe it exists. It seems to be a label slapped onto delinquent children who then use it as an excuse for there bad behaviour. More support teaching social skills and empathy works well in my experience. But then my experience of it may be limited.
I was rarely bad behaved, but was a class clown for awhile. In my case I have been diagnosed by a professional, and have used several different methods to deal with it. I do think the effects of it have often been overstated, and I got along just fine for many years before being diagnosed.
Sometimes certain classes become harder than others. Courses that are required that I have no interest in were always a struggle, particularly when there was a "participation grade" that counted for 20% or so of your final marks. In history, English or science I would participate more than anyone in discussions. Then there are math courses. NO exaggeration here: I took four years of math in high school, which involved 1 hour a day 5 days a week. I paid attention maybe a cumulative 7 hours total over that time period. It is also the class with the most "busywork" (ie answering 35 repetitive questions that test only one or two principles, just in different ways) which is what I feel @meagloth seems to struggle with. I'll be honest (and I feel guilty saying this on a thread with a bunch of teachers!) I would just copy my friends' homework assignments right before class.
Needless to say out of the 3 people who regularly attended it (this was out of probably 20 people assigned to that particular reading discussion time slot) I was the only person who actually bothered to read the material. After that I sort of grudgingly admitted that they exist for a reason. At least in certain subjects.
And about maths… Most of my bad marks in maths are because of getting over discussions with the teacher(s) and later on writing the answers from right to left and bottom to top… But still, I can count in Hexadecimals while people from my class can't divide a polynomial
Also, about ADD/ADHD… One thing is hyperactivity, and another thing are kids whom weren't taught by their parents and are just evil pricks (99% of the 'cases' fall here) overdosed with sugar and anxiety for going back home to play Minecraft. I can say this since I know how it feels to get bored in class, and then the jokes, the paper-throwing and all the stuff that would make a teacher upset begins, with the kids getting bored or either anxious (as an example, I'm always paying attention during [insert all the subjects except economy-related ones here], but nor during economy nor economical theory, because both are pretty boring). Yeah, I'm not dyslexic but even sometimes I read things wrong with black-over-white. I prefer white-over-black much more, because I have ultra-perception of light (and that bothers a lot with white backgrounds).
@meagloth: to learn how to make a mathematical operation correctly you have to do it and do it and do it an do it all over and over and over and over and over again until you can do it by memory. Unless, you can process the operation inside your head naturally (for example, I can solve equations by just looking at them but then I get lost when I write them down :'D) or just by simply using a more handy technique (e.g. instead of 86*5 you could do (8*5)*10+6*5=430).
All this knowledge they teach in school who remember it years after you are done with it? or even after you finished the exam ???? mostly no one because it just not interesting to remember also if you wanna talk about something you can just google it, so all this system to remember stuff is just old and not working no more.
As for ADD/ADHD they are new disturbances because the system isn't right for this kids, but if you put them in the right system for them they won't have any ADD /ADHD problems at all.
Watch this clip what he said is very true about the education system :
Teachers (good ones) always look to empower their pupils. This means giving more control over the method and the skill sets taught to the pupils in consensus with their teachers.
You are the first generation that has knowledge, hard facts, available to you in mere seconds via a computer.
At present most national curriculums around the world are dropping learn by rote knowledge based topics, for skill sets and methodologies.
How to use a library was a big thing back in 1986. Now we teach, how to use a search engine and information trust, along with copyright. We still go to the library. But we now head straight to the fiction.
You are 15. The world wide web was only just coming alive when I started using it at uni in 1994... No one predicted its effect on communication, let alone the formation of communities like this one.
Teaching what kids tomorrow need is always difficult. Also governments and policy makers are resistant to change and upheaval.
You will have been taught redundant skills.
My generation have been taught redundant skills. (Do you know I can file in three different systems?)
I have a feeling the next generation will be moaning about why we bothered to teach them handwriting...
Go easy on your teachers. Hell talk to them. You may be surprised they feel the same as you!